Countless people ask the question, how the Bible came to be? Several may ask is the Lord’s Word truly inspired by God through the prophets, and how do we know what is the original truth. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work." (NASB) 2 Peter 1:21 goes on to say, "For no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God." (NASB) Therefore; it is extremely critical for the church fathers to establish what documents would become the fundamental message used to institute Christian doctrine. For this reason, the New Testament canon was incorporated to achieve the Lord‘s promise, but how was these twenty-seven books formed? According to Gundry, author of the Survey of the New Testament the Christians did not have books that contained the New Testament for the traditions of Jesus words, deeds and the message from God through the prophets. (Gundry)
Therefore, the New Test...
It was deemed that the books of the New Testament that are authentically apostolic in nature were included in the Bible. This strict appraisal process used by the church fathers to determine the legitimacy of certain books in the bible is the reason why scripture, once it becomes part of church canon it is incorruptible. Furthermore, because tradition stems from scriptural interpretation that it can be corruptible as it relies on the judgment of human beings, whose interpretations may be driven by internal
Inspiration can be defined as God’s ongoing and dynamic revelation of truths to humans in order for us to know how to live and deal with spiritual and ethical encounters, by instilling wisdom and understanding of his word. Since humans wrote the Bible there is room for idiosyncrasies, intelligence, historic context, social context, and geographical context to influence scripture. However, God’s revelation of himself and his character prevails through the Bible. There is a dimension of God that can only be reached through personal encounters of His truths, through prayerful reflection of the Bible.
The Bible, a foundational collection of Christian texts, holds the fundamental principles and core beliefs of the faith. To say that the Bible has authority is to say that what the Bible says about how one should live their life is true and must be followed. To ultimately understand why the Bible has authority one must look directly to God. H.D. McDonald in his excerpt in the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, states that “the authority of the Bible is established by its own claims.” This means that the words written in the Bible do not strictly belong to that of whom penned them since the words came from God himself. The writer simply served as a scribe. Numerous times the Bible claims that God is perfect and is without fault, therefore, he being the ultimate power has the authority over his people and models the expectations he has for them. He revels to humans his authority by giving them a revelation, which Elmer Towns in his book Theology for Today defines as “the act whereby God gives us knowledge about Himself which we could not otherwise know.” The entire text of the Bible i...
Three equals one. Out of all of the statements made by the Christian faith, perhaps none is more confusing. The Doctrine of the Trinity has been questioned for decades and many Christians do not even understand it. Colin E. Gunton argues that this does not have to be so. Instead, he calls the Western Church to learn from Eastern Orthodoxy and allow Trinitarian thinking to permeate every aspect of the church. It is when the Western Church embarrasses “The Forgotten Trinity” (the name of the chapter) in thinking and in worship, that we not only learn the nature of God, but how we should live in light of it.
Modern scholars believe that the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, was composed by four or five writers between 1000 to 400 BCE based on much older traditions. The New Testament was composed by a variety of writers between 60 to 110 CE. The contents of the New Testament were formalized by Athanasius of Alexandria in 367 CE, and finally canonized in 382 CE (Geisler and
How We Got the Bible, Maxie Boren, 200pp How We Got The Bible by Maxie Boren seeks to provide the readers with a more intermediate knowledge of historical data concerning the translation, transcription, and various versions of the Bible, their origins, transcribers, publishers, and content therein. There are three major section of the book. The introduction lays them out in order of appearance. First is Basic Information and contains “The ‘mechanics’ of how we got the Bible - a look at the materials used and the manuscripts extant” (pp 3-12). Second is “The formation of the canon - a look at how the books of the Bible came to be accepted” (pp 13-26).
For centuries now Christians have claimed to possess the special revelation of an omnipotent, loving Deity who is sovereign over all of His creation. This special revelation is in written form and is what has come to be known as The Bible which consists of two books. The first book is the Hebrew Scriptures, written by prophets in a time that was before Christ, and the second book is the New Testament, which was written by Apostles and disciples of the risen Lord after His ascension. It is well documented that Christians in the context of the early first century were used to viewing a set of writings as being not only authoritative, but divinely inspired. The fact that there were certain books out in the public that were written by followers of Jesus and recognized as being just as authoritative as the Hebrew Scriptures was never under debate. The disagreement between some groups of Christians and Gnostics centered on which exact group of books were divinely inspired and which were not. The debate also took place over the way we can know for sure what God would have us include in a book of divinely inspired writings. This ultimately led to the formation of the Biblical canon in the next centuries. Some may ask, “Isn’t Jesus really the only thing that we can and should call God’s Word?” and “Isn’t the Bible just a man made collection of writings all centered on the same thing, Jesus Christ?” This paper summarizes some of the evidences for the Old and New Testament canon’s accuracy in choosing God breathed, authoritative writings and then reflects on the wide ranging
It brought together a collaboration of the combined knowledge of God. The fact, that countless followers of God created the Bible, proves that they knew God and therefore we also know God. Later, philosophers like St. Augustine and St. Aquinas began to question the very nature of the Bible. In doing so, they grew closer to God and learned more about Him. “It was therefore necessary that besides philosophical science built up by reason, there should be a sacred science learned through revelation.” (Aquinas, Ignatius, pages 40-41) Many times, in light of a significant breakthrough in any philosopher’s endeavors, a holy unveiling of knowledge became known to them through the grace of God. Thus, we can say that we know of God through literature and in the same token, through
The Doctrine of Salvation (Soteriology). God provides us with everything we need; we see this in Genesis where he provided Adam with everything he needed. Jesus became a man by reincarnation; a verse to support this is John 1:14 “
The biblical narrative is one that is still going on to this day. The biblical narrative tells the story of God and how he reveals himself to us. Rhodes points out that “God comes to each through a historical event or series of events” (2). It is in this way that God reveals himself to us and this maintains the relevance of the biblical narrative in our lives. God reveals himself through formative stories in the bible such as Creation, Adam and Eve, the Fall of Man, The Flood, God’s Covenant with Noah, and the Tower of Babel. From the very beginning of the biblical narrative we see that God relates to us on a personal level. He created us, he formed us, he created the world in which we live, and he has been an active participant in the narrative since before it began.
To forsake a God-given gift is not a good idea. God gave his word to the world. From Scripture, his word, comes revelation and understanding of not only who he is, but also who we are in him. Living without the knowledge and wisdom of Scripture would only lead to an unscrupulous and impure life. God gave his word to the world for a reason, and that gift should not be taken lightly. Through it he reveals the desire he has for the lives of his people. Because it is God’s word, Scripture is a guide that his people need to live by.
God inspired the inspiration of scripture, which he caused writers to understand through abilities he gave them to understand the message he was passing along (Packer). All scripture is indeed infallible and true because the Bible is God-breathed (Young). Jeremiah 30:1-2 says, “The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Write in a book all the words that I have spoken to you (English Standard
The Bible is the book sacred to Christians and is seen as the indirect word of God. To Christians, the Bible is a guideline on how to live their lives. It also provides information on how the Earth was created, how humans came about, and provides explanation to anything life has to offer. The Bible is split into two segments which include the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament is the sacred book of the Jews. It provides information to everything before the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. The New Testament starts with the birth of God’s son whom he sent down to Earth, Jesus Christ. The Bible is a sacred book for the Christians as well as a history book composed of many first and second hand accounts of not only Jesus Christ,
Is it possible to understand the gospel message, serve as an officer in a church, be sure of your salvation, and yet still not get into heaven when you die? Matthew, one of the original twelve disciples, answered this question clearly. Yes, on “that day”, many will stand before God and hear Him say, “I know you not; depart from me.” (Matthew 7:23 KJV)
There has always been some sort of Christianity in history. Always new ways of doing things with each generation that comes of age. The changes that are made have not been with the conception of destroying the established ways but with establishing a continuity to preserve what is now and what is new. This is known as the preservation of type or the first note of fidelity of the existing developments of Christianity also known as the Principles of Christianity. There are three particular principles that I find to be intriguingly fascinating.